Ski Everest 2006 - Tomas Olsson: Snowstorm in base camp again...

I made a short hike up the hill next to base camp to keep moving and was meet by both good and bad news once I arrived back in base camp.

I´ll start with the bad news, we once again have troubles with our cargo from Bergans of Norway. Our helpers from Arun Treks & Expedition has picked up the cargo from the airport in Kathmandu and sent all the equipment with a lorry together with the equipment from a Russian expedition. We were yesterday very happy to hear that the equipment actually cleared the customs and made it in to Tibet, but that was the end of our luck. Apparently the snow storm we have up here in BC has also hit the road between the Tibetan villages between Nyalam and Tingri. And of course, the lorry with our high altitudes tents, sleeping bags and so on are on the wrong side of the snow. They are still in Nyalam and we were today informed by the main representative from the Chinese mountaineering association, Mr Lee, that the lorry will stay in Nyalam until the snow melts...

So that was the bad news, now to the good news. Our film and photo team, Tsering and Lambabu, that arrived to BC a couple of days ahead of us did a tremendous effort this Monday. The attacked up the mountain and made it all the way up to the north col, it´s now very evident that they are quite far ahead of us regarding acclimatization to high altitude. And they are not just ahead of us, they are ahead of everyone, that actually pitched the first tent in the north col so far this season! That was our only high altitude tent, the rest being down in Nyalam.

So, I think it´s fair to say that we are both first and last in the hunt for the summit of Everest for the moment...